A Prince of Sinners eBook

CHAPTER X

LadySybilsays “Yes”

The carriage plunged into the shadow of the pine-woods,
and commenced the long uphill ascent to Saalburg.
Lady Caroom put down her parasol and turned towards
Sybil, whose eyes were steadfastly fixed upon the
narrow white belt of road ahead.

“Now, Sybil,” she said, “for our
talk.”

“Your talk,” Sybil corrected her, with
a smile.

I’m to be listener.”

“Oh, it may not be so one-sided after all,”
Lady Caroom declared. “And we had better
make haste, or that impetuous young man of yours will
come pounding after us on his motor before we know
where we are. What are you going to do about
him, Sybil?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, you’ll have to make up your mind.
He’s getting on my nerves. You must decide
one way or another.”

Sybil sighed.

“He’s quite the nicest young man I know—­of
his class,” she remarked.

“Exactly,” Lady Caroom assented.
“And though I think you will admit that I am
one of the least conventional of mothers, I must really
say I don’t think that it is exactly a comfortable
thing to do to marry a man who is altogether outside
one’s own circle.”

“Mr. Brooks,” Sybil said, “is quite
as well bred as Atherstone.”

“He is his equal in breeding and in birth,”
Lady Caroom declared. “You know all about
him. I admit,” she continued, “that
it sounds like a page out of a novel. But it
isn’t. The only pity is—­from
one point of view—­that it makes so little
difference.”

“You think,” Sybil asked, “that
he will really keep his word—­that he will
not be reconciled with Lord Arranmore?”

“I am sure of it, my dear,” Lady Caroom
answered. “Unless a miracle happens, he
will continue to be Mr. Kingston Brooks for the next
ten or fifteen years, for Lord Arranmore’s lifetime,
and you know that they are a long-lived race.
So you see the situation remains practically unaltered
by what I have told you. Mr. Kingston Brooks is
a great favourite of mine. I am very fond of
him indeed. But I very much doubt—­even
if he should ask you—­whether you would find
your position as his wife particularly comfortable.
You and I, Sybil, have no secrets from one another.
I wish you would tell me exactly how you feel about
him.”

Sybil smiled—­a little ruefully.

“If I knew—­exactly,” she answered,
“I should know exactly what to do. But
I don’t. You know how uninteresting our
set of young men are as a rule. Well, directly
I met Mr. Brooks at Enton I felt that he was different.
He interested me very much. Then I have always
wanted to do something useful, to get something different
into my life, and he found me exactly the sort of
work I wanted. But he has never talked to me as
though he cared particularly though I think that he
does a little.”

“It is easy to see,” Lady Caroom remarked,
“that you are not head over ears in love.”